Huayu started as a substitute director

Chapter 335 Supporting the Start
Currently, Chang'e Video is launched in a test phase and has no advertising revenue. Even membership payment has not been activated. The videos are free to watch, so there is no money to be made.

The server operating costs are incurred.

The video interface is very simple, with categories such as movies, TV, and children.

Movies and TV shows are all provided by Yutu and Huazhongjia, as well as some old TV movies from Hong Kong's TVB and Asia Television.

The copyrights of old movies from Cinema City, Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest, etc. are super cheap now, and you can buy a bunch for a few million.

CCTV and other state-owned studios also have a lot of domestic film and television copyrights, which are sold in packages for millions.

The animations are already available on the small broken station, and the Shanghai Art Film Studio also has a bunch of them, such as "Journey to the West: Conquering the Dragon King", "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King", "The Magic Book", "Black Cat Sheriff", "Calabash Brothers", and "The Lotus Lantern".

In this way, the Chang'e video is enriched.

In an office, Fang Hong, Zhang Lidong and Zhang Nan were discussing something.

"According to the data, the online broadcast volume of "Legend of Lu Zhen" is 1098 million, and the daily active users of the platform are around three million," said Zhang Nan.

"So little?!" Fang Hong was surprised.

In his previous life, he heard that the video had tens of millions of views, which was too little, not even a fraction of what was seen on video platforms like iQiyi.

The gap is too big. iQiyi has 50 million daily active users and is the largest long video platform. It is not even in the top ten. The tenth largest broadcasting platform also has tens of millions of daily active users.

This year's video platform is an era of mergers and massive expansion. iQiyi has just acquired PPS, and its strength will increase significantly.

Penguin Video is also working with six major British production companies, including BBC, ITV, Bertelsmann Group, All3, and Endemol, to introduce resources for British dramas.

Youku also cooperates with Lionsgate, CCTV, 20th Century Fox and others to introduce their film and television resources.

These three platforms are all expanding, but Chang'e's pace is too slow. They have money and can buy high-quality resources, but he can only rely on himself.

"As for daily active users, it's normal for some people to watch a show today and then watch it again in two days when there are more episodes. Old people leave and new people come, but the data is constantly increasing." Zhang Nan is optimistic.

As long as Yutu can continue to produce hit products, they will be able to occupy a place.

Fang Hong asked: "How do you calculate the number of views?"

"If a user watches an entire episode in one day, it is counted as one playback. Duplicate IPs or duplicate devices are only counted once, and more than that are not counted," Zhang Nan explained.

If it can be played tens of millions of times, it means tens of millions of people have visited it, and it’s possible in such a short time!
It took Tencent two or three years to reach 10 million daily active users, but Tencent was very conservative at the time and was watching the situation without expanding.

Nowadays, most people still watch TV on computers, and few watch it on mobile phones. One reason is that the configuration is not high, and the other is that the screen is small and it is not comfortable to watch.

Another thing is that data traffic is very expensive, so I can only use wireless WIFI when I get home. However, WIFI is not completely popularized now, and not every family has it. Many people are still using it for free.

So now people watch TV either on a TV, computer, or mobile phone, but only those who have the means can do so.

The network infrastructure is still not perfect.

This made Fang Hong feel better. Otherwise, he had put so much effort into promotion, but only so few people visited Chang'e Video. That would be a huge loss.

It’s just that the user retention is a little poor. If we can improve it, there will still be hope.

It’s just that there is still too little content on Yutu, just a few fresh TV series like “My Love from the Star” and “Beijing Love Story”.

There have been a lot of fresh movies shot in recent years, but they can be watched in an hour or two, unlike TV series which have dozens of episodes and may take several days to finish.

If a serialized series can last for a month or so, a hit movie can retain most users for a month or so.

Online streaming platforms still need to continuously produce new content, such as variety shows and web dramas, otherwise they will not be able to retain users.

“You said before that we need to set profit-sharing standards for online dramas. This method of calculation is to prepare for setting profit-sharing standards. If there are no restrictions on equipment and IP, others will be able to increase the number of views, and we will be in a passive position,” said Zhang Nan.

If the number of views is counted per click, then the problem of inflating the number of views will occur, and Chang'e will not be able to afford that share even if it goes bankrupt.

Billions of views can generate tens of billions of revenue. Who can afford this? Even Tencent can’t afford it.

Of course Fang Hong understood the logic behind this.

The concept of profit-sharing, which he proposed a long time ago, is to set standards for online dramas, which means that the producer will be given a certain amount of money for each effective playback by a user.

There is nothing wrong with this, the only problem is that the numbers don't look good.

"You should make two sets of playback calculation standards. One set is for outsiders to see. One click counts as one play, no matter how many times you click. The other set is the one you just mentioned, which is for internal people to see." Fang Hong suggested.

"If that's the case, then the data is too inflated!" Zhang Nan was surprised.

With this kind of calculation method, it would be too terrifying if the number of views could easily reach tens of millions or even hundreds of millions.

"We need to do this. We need to give the outside world the illusion that our platform is a mainstream platform. This is branding and also a form of advertising. We don't want to give people the impression that our platform is a marginal product that could go bankrupt at any time."

Fang Hong said again: "Don't be too exaggerated, just multiply the current number of views by five to ten times."

Is multiplying it five or ten times too much? Zhang Nan felt that his previous thoughts were still conservative. He thought that they were good at playing, which was a great insight.

Zhang Lidong remained silent, and felt that it was a bit unbelievable and exaggerated. This method became commonplace later, but nowadays, video platforms rarely use this method, and they are relatively simple. Even if there is water, it will not be too big.

But if Fang Hong comes along, the number will be multiplied by five to ten times, and in the future, it is possible that a TV series with hundreds of billions of views will be born.

Over 100 million views, multiplied by ten is 10 billion.

According to this standard, the number of views of "You Who Came From the Stars" will soon exceed 10 billion.

Because it has now exceeded 8.3 million, this is the on-demand volume, that is, one click to play, it has not been multiplied by ten times.

"Okay, let's study this set of calculation standards." Zhang Nan agreed.

It was originally launched as a test, and many things are not yet perfected, so we still have to slowly explore and formulate the rules.

Only when the rules are formulated and improved will it be the time for great development. Just like Bilibili encourages UP hosts to produce content, Chang'e should also encourage small production companies to produce online dramas.

Relying on Yutu is too slow, and we still have to rely on other forces. The films and TV series produced by Yutu cannot meet the needs of Chang'e Video at all. One platform needs too much content.

"This still needs to be commercialized as soon as possible, recruit some advertisers, and improve the membership system." Fang Hong felt a little overwhelmed.

The main thing is that we don’t make any money, we just spend money. It’s burning money, but at least we have to get some back.

“This requires guaranteed traffic flow.” Zhang Lidong said.

"There is a follow-up TV series." Fang Hong said.

To ensure traffic, we must ensure that there are continuous TV dramas produced. The upcoming ones include "Family" and "The Heirs", which are all considered hits.

For Chang'e Video, Fang Hong originally planned to focus on developing TV dramas.

"But you still have to sign an agreement with Yutu. You can owe the copyright fee first and settle it later, but you can't not pay it. Only with money can they continue to produce, especially online dramas. If it's not broadcast on TV, there will be no funds to recover and it will be difficult to operate." Fang Hong reminded.

"Okay, that's what we planned too." Zhang Nan nodded.

It is unrealistic not to pay copyright fees. You still have to pay some amount, but people have no obligation to do so.

Fang Hong thought about this. As the CEO of Yutu, he takes hundreds of millions of funds from Yutu every year, which can be considered as dividends. It is the same if he injects it into Chang'e.

There is no need to confuse the two and let the people below get less money.

Yutu can just help Chang'e get started, but Yutu cannot support Chang'e due to her size.

"By the way, how is the game going recently?" Fang Hong asked.

This is what he cares about most. Without games to support it, the various sections of Chang'e cannot be sustained.

"After re-encrypting the client and standardizing internal management, the problem has been contained, but a small number of plug-ins still appear," said Zhang Nan.

Generally, cheats are used to crack the client and pass wrong data to the data center. The data center thinks that is correct and changes the game data. This is the basic logic.

"So there is a problem internally?" Fang Hong said.

"Yes, but some of the previous developers have resigned. They are familiar with the code of "Heroes of Glory" and have been in contact with internal personnel after resigning, so we are not sure whether it is internal or those who have resigned. We are still investigating." Zhang Nan explained.

If it is someone who has left the company, nothing can be found out; if it is an internal employee, it will be difficult to pass on data loopholes under strict management.

But there are still experts among the people who can crack it.

"We are using legal means to crack down on private plug-in organizations, but it is difficult to contain them overseas," Zhang Nan added.

"Ubisoft is a rubbish company. We will no longer need them after the contract expires. You should be prepared to take over the international market." Fang Hong waved his hand.

Chang'e Technology is now expanding rapidly, so it is possible to build bases overseas.

The contract with Ubisoft will expire at the beginning of next year, and the timing is perfect for taking over and operating it ourselves. By that time, the number of Chang'e employees will have increased and bases will have been built overseas.

The main reason is that 30% of the profit is too little. He wants to get it all back now. He really can't bear to burn so much money. He will be in great pain if there is a problem with the game.

In the past, we hired agents because our financial situation did not allow us to handle the task. But this may not be the case in the future!

"Okay!" Zhang Nan agreed.

In this way, Chang'e's revenue will be able to reach a higher level.

"See if we can find some expert programmers to develop an anti-cheating system to curb it through technical means," Fang Hong suggested.

"Led by our two technical presidents, Yang Zhenyuan and Hong Dingkun, we have gathered dozens of programming experts and are already developing an anti-cheating system," said Zhang Nandao.

"That's good!" Fang Hong nodded.

There will always be some difficulties in the company's progress, but they can be overcome. This not only trains the team, but also trains the ability to resist risks.

(End of this chapter)